Topstep is a proprietary trading firm that lets you trade futures with company capital after you prove your skills in a simulated evaluation. Instead of risking your own money in the markets, you pay a monthly subscription fee to attempt the evaluation, and if you pass, Topstep funds your trading account and you keep 90% of the profits you generate.
The model appeals to traders who either lack the capital to trade futures on their own or want to limit their personal financial risk. But earning and keeping a funded account requires meeting strict performance and consistency rules that most participants don’t clear.
How the Business Model Works
Topstep operates exclusively in the futures market. You can trade products listed on the CME, COMEX, NYMEX, and CBOT exchanges, which cover everything from stock index futures (like the E-mini S&P 500) to commodities, currencies, and interest rate products. Stocks, options, forex, crypto, and CFDs are not available through Topstep.
The core idea is straightforward: you pay a recurring subscription to access a simulated trading environment called the Trading Combine. If your performance meets the required benchmarks, you advance to a funded account where you trade with Topstep’s capital. Profits you earn in the funded account are split 90/10 in your favor, meaning you keep 90 cents of every dollar. Traders who joined before January 12, 2026 keep 100% of their first $10,000 in lifetime profits before the 90/10 split kicks in.
The Trading Combine Evaluation
The Trading Combine is where every Topstep trader starts. It simulates real market conditions using live price data, but your trades are not placed in the actual market. You’re being tested on whether you can hit a profit target while staying within risk limits.
The evaluation has one hard rule: your account balance cannot hit or drop below the Maximum Loss Limit. If it does, you fail and must reset (for a fee) or start a new subscription. Beyond that rule, you need to meet several objectives. You must reach and maintain a profit target specific to your account size, and you must pass a consistency target, which requires that your single best trading day accounts for no more than 50% of your total profits. If one big day makes up more than half your gains, Topstep raises your profit target, forcing you to earn more before you can pass.
There is no time limit on how long the evaluation takes, but you pay the subscription fee every month until you pass or cancel. The consistency rule exists to prevent traders from passing on a single lucky session. Topstep wants to see that you can produce profits across multiple days, not just one.
The pass rate reflects the difficulty. From January through December 2025, only 16.8% of all Trading Combines initiated were successfully completed.
Account Sizes and Position Limits
Topstep offers three account tiers, each with different position limits:
- $50K account: Up to 5 standard contracts or 50 micro contracts at a time
- $100K account: Up to 10 standard contracts or 100 micro contracts
- $150K account: Up to 15 standard contracts or 150 micro contracts
Micro contracts are scaled-down versions of standard futures contracts (typically one-tenth the size), so they let you take smaller positions and manage risk more precisely. The position limit is the maximum number of contracts you can hold open at one time per account.
Monthly Costs and Reset Fees
You pay a monthly subscription for each Trading Combine you run. Topstep offers two pricing paths. The Standard Path has lower monthly fees but charges an activation fee when you advance to a funded account. The No Activation Fee Path has higher monthly fees but skips that charge later.
Standard Path monthly fees:
- $50K account: $49/month
- $100K account: $99/month
- $150K account: $149/month
No Activation Fee Path monthly fees (as of April 28, 2026):
- $50K account: $95/month
- $100K account: $149/month
- $150K account: $229/month
If you blow through your Maximum Loss Limit and fail the evaluation, you can reset your account instead of waiting for a new billing cycle. Reset fees mirror the monthly subscription cost for your pricing path. On the Standard Path, resetting a $50K account costs $49, a $100K costs $99, and a $150K costs $149.
What Happens After You Pass
Passing the Trading Combine moves you into an Express Funded Account, which still operates in a simulated environment but with real payouts. From there, you can eventually advance to a Live Funded Account where your trades are placed in the actual market.
In the Express Funded Account, the consistency rules shift. Your single best trading day must account for no more than 40% of your total net profit during the payout window (compared to 50% in the Combine). This is calculated on net profit, not gross, and the percentage is not rounded. Anything above 40.00% disqualifies you from a payout for that window.
To request your first payout from an Express Funded Account under the standard track, you need at least five winning trading days, defined as days where your net profit is $150 or more. Under the consistency track, you need at least three trading days that meet the 40% consistency target. Payout caps vary: the standard track allows up to $5,000 or 50% of your account balance (whichever is lower), while the consistency track allows up to $6,000 on a $150K account or 50% of the balance.
Once you reach a Live Funded Account, you can request payouts of up to 50% of your balance after accumulating five winning days per request. After 30 non-consecutive winning days in the Live Funded Account, daily payouts unlock and you can access up to 100% of your balance.
How Payouts Work
All payouts follow the 90/10 profit split. You request payouts through your dashboard during CME market hours, which run from Sunday at 5 PM Central Time through Friday at 5 PM Central Time, excluding holidays. The minimum payout request is $125.
Before receiving any money, you need to submit a W-9 (for U.S. residents) or W-8BEN (for non-U.S. residents) tax form. Payouts can only be sent to a bank account in your name.
Who Topstep Is Designed For
Topstep targets people who already have some futures trading knowledge and want access to more capital than they could fund on their own. Opening a personal futures trading account typically requires thousands of dollars in margin, and losses come directly out of your pocket. With Topstep, your financial risk is limited to the monthly subscription and any reset fees.
That said, the 16.8% pass rate on the Trading Combine means most people who start the evaluation don’t make it to a funded account. The subscription fees add up if you spend several months attempting to pass or resetting after failed attempts. A trader paying $99 per month for a $100K evaluation who takes six months to pass has spent $594 before earning a dollar. If they reset twice during that time, that’s another $198, bringing the total to nearly $800.
The consistency requirements also shape who succeeds. Traders who rely on a few large winning trades to offset many small losses will struggle with the rules that cap how much of your profit can come from a single day. The program favors steady, repeatable performance over high-variance strategies.